El Niño: The game that rings in the new year

The History of the Spanish New Year Lottery

History is only as good as its historians, so although the data is difficult to find, here is our best overview of when exactly this lottery came to be and how.

The Idea

This raffle was first devised in 1877 by Duchess Maria del Carmen Hernández, wife to one of the richest Industrialists of the time. Duchess Maria was a very charitable woman, particularly when it came to children. It was her idea to create a lottery in an attempt to pay for a children's hospital located in the Spanish capital of Madrid.

There was already a children’s clinic in the area, proposed by the Duchess and constructed in early 1877, but despite being the first pediatric hospital in Spain, it was proving to be insufficient to its growing number of patients.

So, in order to fund and construct the ambitious project of building a newer, bigger children's centre, known today as the "Hospital Niño Jesús", a lottery was created, and dubbed “Raffle of the Child”. This is where the “El Niño” name caught on, as the word Niño means child. The funding went ahead thanks to the lottery and the generosity of the good duchess and its efforts can be found still operating as a children’s hospital to this day in Madrid.

The Duchess

Despite being known as a kind soul, with a heart “too big” for those around her, Duchess Maria' life does not tell a happy story. Before becoming a Duchess, she was widowed and alone. She remarried in 1873 to a wealthy Industrialist named Duke Juan Manuel de Manzanedo and enjoyed 9 years of happiness, living in a palace. During that time she became an experienced entrepreneur herself, creating a distillery known as The Three Sisters (Last Tres Hermanas), the first in the region, expanding the Lanjarón Spa, a popular health centre, and filled the role of Chair for the Association for the Care for Spanish Children.

In 1882 however, everything changed. Maria’s husband was taken ill and died suddenly. News of his death travelled to Cuba, to the ears of Josefa Manzanedo, an illegitimate daughter of the Dukes, but recognised as his heir. Through a series of lawsuits that raged over ten years, Josefa managed to take everything from Maria, including the palace she lived in, which had been a wedding gift.

Maria died in poverty in 1894, with nothing to her name except a title with no meaning or power, the hotel room in which she resided, and three orphaned grandchildren to care for, after losing her son from her first marriage.

The Mystery and Revival of El Niño

With the Duchess Maria’s fortunes lashed to a new benefactor, all origins of The Child Raffle were more or less lost to history. Records do show that the lottery continued, sporadically at first, before establishing unofficial records in 1908. But the name of this lottery and why it was created remained a mystery.

That is until 2013 when Spanish researcher Gabriel Medina Vílchez, whilst researching his latest book, came across this information and ended one of the biggest secrets in Spanish History: the ancestry of the El Niño Lottery. In 1941, official records for this lottery began, when General F. Roldán (Director of Stamp and Monopolies) ordered 4 series of 42,000 bills for this game and standardised it, making it an official public record for all. It was so successful that the tradition continued, and lives on to this day.

The Children’s Hospital

Along with the lottery, the reason the hospital was built had also been lost to history until recently. The hospital, thankfully, was already funded when Duchess Maria’s assets were taken in 1882. In 1881 the hospital was inaugurated and by 1885, its construction was complete, but the paperwork to prove ownership was unknown. In 1890 the Provincial Benefit Board of Madrid took up official ownership and continued to maintain the hospital’s integral structure. A plaque has been erected to Duchess Maria, dedicating her as the official patron of the "Hospital Niño Jesús" and as the foundation upon which modern pediatric medicine was established in Spain. In 1995, the Hospital del Niño Jesús was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest.

The draw

The first El Niño raffle actually took place on the 6th of November 1877 to much excitement and expectation. After conducting the first draw, plans for hospital construction began, with workers breaking ground on 7th November 1879. The raffle was baptized by the Duchess herself as the "National Child Raffle" in memory of those youngest lost. In turn, she established that the draw be held annually.

The numbers and places for El Niño

If you’re running the numbers on El Niño, here are the latest figures to be aware of. The most popular number to appear is 0, with 21 overall appearances in the top prize. It is followed, although rather slowly, by the numbers 7 and 9, with 14 and 13 appearances respectively.

The least seen numbers are 3, 8 and 1. 3 has been seen 6 times, 8, ironically, 8 times and 1, 9 times. Below you’ll find a breakdown of the numbers

Numbers that have never been graced with El Gordo

El Gordo has never started with: 00, 02, 07, 15, 16, 21, 27, 34, 36, 46, 47, 50, 51, 53, 54, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66 , 73, 74, 75, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 86, 88, 90, 94, 95, 97, 98, 99

El Gordo has never finished in: 02, 05, 09, 11, 16, 17, 21, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 35, 37, 40, 43, 44, 48, 52, 53, 56, 58 , 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 73, 81, 83, 91, 92, 95, 96, 98

Places that have never won the jackpot

Cáceres, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Huesca, Tarragona and Melilla have never won the El Niño jackpot sold in their area.

History of Jackpot Winners